Okay, I've got a bit more for you on the appearance of a "George Felix Allen" in the records of the Albemarle Circut Court in the early 1970s. As noted below, the court clerk, Shelby Marshall, confirmed to me in an interview earlier today that a picture posted at DailyKos showing a "George Felix Allen" appearance in 1974 court records is genuine. Now I've spoken with Marshall a second time, and she's confirmed that a second photo of a second court records entry involving a "George Felix Allen" is genuine, too. So now we know that "George Felix Allen" appeared in court records twice in the early 1970s. The clerk's confirmed it. But for what offense or offenses?

The second entry is depicted here:

That second entry appears in a book in the court with the following cover, Marshall confirmed:

In the case of the 1974 entry reported on earlier, Marshall told me in the first interview that that entry referred to either a summons or a warrant, and that it could have been for anything from an unpaid parking ticket up to a misdemeanor for something serious like assault and battery. But Marshall said that all further records of the case had been destroyed 10 years later by statute.

After speaking to Marshall a second time today about the photo of the second entry from 1973, it appears that the same is the case. Marshall told me that despite the fact that the second record appeared in an index of "criminal" cases, that it could still have been a minor infraction, such as "fishing without a license."

"Even if it were a summons, it would be a criminal case," Marshall said.

Adding an interesting layer to the story, Marshall said she's been clerk at the court for decades, that Allen even practiced law in that court when she was clerk, and that she respected Allen and had no memory of him commiting a serious infraction. "I have never known him to be anything other than a perfect gentleman," she told me.

Still, Marshall conceded that she didn't know what offense the entry was for, and added that as in the case of the earlier entry, the rest of the info about the case had been destroyed. It was unclear if the two entries were linked in some way, though Marshall suggested that she didn't think they were.

So there are very clearly some unanswered questions here, possibly important ones. On the other hand, it's perfectly possible that there's nothing here. The Allen campaign, for its part, isn't helping. We've put in several requests for comment from the Allen campaign, and have heard nothing back. This should be easy to clear up, shouldn't it?

Either way, here's what we know now: A George Felix Allen was issued either a summons or a warrant twice, in 1973 and in 1974. In each case, the offense could have been anything from an unpaid parking ticket to a serious misdemeanor. The episodes may or may not have been linked. And no further court records are available.

So that's where we are.

Update: Not Larry Sabato claims that the Allen campaign is saying that the 1974 entry was for fishing without a license. But there's no link to any statement provided by the Allen campaign and no one from the campaign is quoted, either, so it's unclear to me that the Allen camp has responded in this fashion.